My first run of the week was on Tuesday. The weather was perfect and instead of sticking with the short dirt trail run I had planned, I was inspired to lace up and head out for a 10 miler. Longest of the year so far. Despite running a hard race on Sunday, my legs felt strong in the beginning. I hit a little bit of a wall at mile 6, but my second wind soon followed. Mile pace for the run was 8 min 15 sec. While running longer distances now, I have noticed that my form becomes very compact. Each stride is short and quick. It must make me look like a hobbling old man. My knees were immediately sore, shins not so much. I was shot for the rest of the evening after dunking my weary legs in ice.
In retrospect, I should have listened to my body and cut the run short. Motivation to run 26.2 miles is at a maximum... even overflowing at times. My legs ability to withstand impacts involved with that distance and the amount of time necessary for me to carefully increase mileage is marginal. This lethal combination causes a rift between me and my shins. Running was out of the question for the next 2 days due to an all-day work trip and my journey to Monterey. It's not like I could have ran anyway with the throbbing pain shooting up through my lower legs with each step.
Friday I made a pitiful attempt to run along Carmel Beach. After about a 100 yards, the morning ended up as a half mile soul search along the Pacific. Result: take the weekend off and ease back into the next week. I also seem to have noticed a relationship between my shin pain and race efforts. During the last few months of training, I have only been sidelined after running mile-repeats and races. Forcing myself to run at a slower pace while concentrating on technique may allow me to log more miles.
-Feb 16: 1 hr yoga during lunch break. 10 mile run on Marysville levees after work (8:15 min/mile).
-Feb 19: Beach run cut short by throbbing shins.
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4 comments:
Bring amber lamps!!
you been doing your toe tappers (sometimes referred to as Kenyan Toe Taps)? I can't find much about them online, but what you do is stand with your feet about shoulder width apart... then put one foot forward, so that the heel of the forward foot is just a little further forward than the toe of the back foot. Now imagine there is a golf ball next to your toes of the forward foot (I usually put a rock or something there so I don't have to imagine it) and lift your toes up and over the golf ball to the other side and then down... now lift your toes (keeping your heel down the whole time) and cross over to the other side. Each time you return to the original starting side, that counts as one... do 50 on each foot, it will make your shin feel really really tight and it might burn like a mother cusser, but it will strengthen the muscle that causes problems such as shin splints. Due to it causing tightness, and the inability to stretch this particular muscle, I would suggest doing it at the end of runs, or maybe at a time of day where the muscle will have time to loosen up before your run. The motion you make should be similar to playing Rock Band drums, but with a left to right and/or right to left motion incorporated into it. If you find it too hard or too easy, try putting the foot further or not as far in front of you. If it doesn't burn, you're doing it wrong.
or maybe try some of that KT tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNP-mTNdZRE
I forget which coach in track had us do it, but if you run tight figure eights (which looks ridiculous to anyone watching you, but so does the toe tapping bit) it will also work out that problematic muscle (medial tibial I believe is what it's called)... by "tight" I mean, picture an 8 on the ground about ten feet long/tall. Run that about 10 times. I never liked this one, but I figured it couldn't hurt to mention as an alternative to the toe tappers.
forgot to mention, in the figure 8... after running it 10 times, change direction and run it 10 more times.
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